Hearts, Lies and Friends
by walkinthedarkTAI
Summary: Years after Harry and his friends leave school, the next generation invades Hogwarts. Alicia Marston's first six years at Hogwarts have been plain enough, but now, as a seventh year, Alicia's going to get it right. Of course, when do things go as planned?
1. Chapter 1

1Four girls made a promise they couldn't keep. They promised to always be friends; the promised to let nothing, not even death separate them. And yet, in a matter of minutes, best friends had turned worst enemies. And how does that happen to a person? Well, listening to a dilapidated old hat is a start.

There is only one person in the world who would not want to wake up late on a Sunday morning with a promising sun shining through the window. Alicia Marston would have much preferred waking up a few hours later.

Being one to prefer the night, Alicia had not fallen asleep until late (or rather, early), and the bright, peppy sun was like acid in her eyes, and the feeling was slowly traveling to her head. Smothering her head with a pillow, Alicia rolled over to go back to sleep, but the covers were thrown off her bed by her family's house elf, with the help of her sister, Ashley. Face still buried under her pillow, she cried out something that sounded like, "Mumph!"

In seconds the pillows that were stacked up under Alicia's head vanished along with those that were piled above, blocking out the stinging sunlight. Her head came crashing down toward the thankfully soft mattress. It took all of Alicia's control not to cry out when she was splashed with frigid water.

"Bloody hell! I'm up already!" Swinging her feet over the edge of her bed and getting unsteadily to her feet, Alicia untwisted her baggy t-shirt and boxer shorts. Not bothering with a dressing gown or slippers, Alicia walked heavily towards the bathroom. Quickly brushing her teeth, Alicia pulled her short, layered hair in a ponytail and continued down the staircase and to the kitchen.

She regretted not wearing slippers when her feet touched the icy, marble kitchen floor. Her long, narrow, flat feet slapped against the hard floor and called attention to her entrance. Alicia had only two other siblings besides Ashley, Marcia and Emma. Muttering a quick hello to them, Alicia grabbed some toast and made a displeased face at its dry blandness.

She sat down next to eleven-year-old Emma and grabbed the crystal-like plastic pitcher of pumpkin juice. Since there was hardly any juice left, Alicia deemed it okay to drink straight from the pitcher.

Unfortunately for her, Alicia's mother, Catherine Marston, chose that moment to walk into the kitchen. "Alicia Nicolette Marston, use proper table manners!"

"Yes, mum." Alicia sighed, exasperated. Combined with a very obvious eye-roll, Alicia's sigh gave the impression that she had heard that particular command many times before.

When Mrs. Marston had turned her back, Alicia made a face and defiantly finished off the pitcher of juice. Mrs. Marston was a highly-paid, well-respected Muggle lawyer. Since a young child Alicia's mother had always wanted to be a lawyer. Finding our that she was a witch had not changed her ambition in the least.

The clock chimed noon and a house-elf appeared immediately beside Mrs. Marston, holding a thermos of coffee. With a crack, the house-elf disappeared again. "Well, dears, I'm off! I'm not sure when I'll be home but give your father a kiss for me."

The professional, elegantly suited woman was out of the house and the intricate wooden door was swinging closed. Marcia and Emma, plus Ashley, who had just walked into the kitchen, fully clothed and looking awake, stared and the door, and heaved what seemed like one simultaneous sigh.

Alicia stood up and grabbed another piece of toast before heading back toward the living room. She shoved the toast into her mouth so that half was crammed in, and the other half was jutting out. She didn't even make it past the round-edged, glass kitchen table before she was stopped short by a loud, deep, yet not hostile voice. "Alicia, how many times do I have to tell you? Do not eat like that; you're going to get crumbs on the floor!"

"Wa i di! Gaa uph a Awisa de?" Alicia cringed as she swallowed the large wad of bread. "What is this! Gang up on Alicia day?"

"Alicia, don't yell, it's hardly noon and we don't want to start an argument just yet."

The fingers on her hands contracting into all sorts of odd shapes, Alicia groaned in frustration and stomped from the kitchen. She only just caught her father telling her sisters that he was leaving and would be coming home later.

Alicia's face contorted in angry disgust. She went to the cherry wood display case and pulled out the dish that held the Floo powder.

i School starts tomorrow and no one has remembered to go shopping, especially Mum and Dad, /I Alicia thought bitterly to herself.

First checking to make sure that her father had left, Alicia stepped back into the kitchen and called with a cheeriness that could only be fake coming from someone that had been so angry moments before, "All right, who's ready to go shopping in Diagon Alley?"

"Finally," muttered Marcia, as Ashley shrugged and Emma remained stiffly silent. The rather shy girl was starting Hogwarts for the first time and did not appreciate the freedom of leaving home.

Unanimously (unless Emma was counted) the group got ready to go and were taking turns stepping into the grand, stone fireplace. Alicia was the last to go, tripping ungracefully over her feet and stumbling into someone's arms at the Leaky Cauldron.

She looked up to see Stan Machester, who she considered her best friend. Although her left knee did collide with the floor, it was better than a full body slam onto the splintery wood. Jumping up to full height (which wasn't all that much) she quickly thanked Stan and then launched into his arms.

"I haven't seen you in forever!" exclaimed Stan as he hugged her tightly.

Pulling away and smiling brightly, Alicia said, "Well, if two months is forever, you have a long time until you die."

Stan chuckled and rolled his eyes at Alicia's sarcastic joke. "So where are we off to?"

"We, who said you were coming?" It was obvious that Alicia was kidding when she grabbed Stan's arm and ran to catch up to her siblings.

After all the school shopping had been finished, and lists checked over, Alicia insisted that they all go to Florean Fortescue's for an ice cream. Everyone ordered a flavour of ice cream, except Alicia who was having a rather hard time choosing, considering the fact that the decision on which ice cream to buy wasn't all that important. It wasn't until her sister grew impatient that Alicia ordered the first flavour that come to mind. 

Alicia and Stan chatted about things that had happened over the summer (though Alicia had insisted that the highlight of her holiday had been sleeping in until noon). After everyone had finished their ice cream, Ashley, Marcia, Alicia and Stan took Emma around to all of the shops are Diagon Alley, hoping to spark her interest in all things magical. By the time they were ready to head home, Emma was at least slightly anticipating her arrival at Hogwarts.

They returned home a good few hours after they had arrived. (Stan too, as he had insisted that he needed to be sure that Alicia did catch the train the next day, for two reasons. One being her chronic lateness; and two, his worry that Alicia might purposely miss the train in order not to return to school. He was sure that she had not gotten over what happened last June.) All of the children that attended Hogwarts were laden with books; and a new broom for Alicia, who had made Gryffindor Quidditch Captain.

The four siblings and Stan sat around on the comfortably plush couches, and occasionally someone would take a stab at conversation. Eventually they became frustrated and Alicia (who was the worst at amusing herself out of the entire group) found herself walking in a circle to amuse herself. But surely five people could find something to do in a house with no adults around.

When it began to near nighttime, Alicia was struck with an idea. Abandoning her circle, she sprinted over to the Floo powder, being especially careful not to catch her foot on the coffee table as she hurdled over it.

She threw some powder into the fireplace and stuck her head through, calling to her neighbors. "Baba! Michael Baba, you come to the fireplace now!" she screeched into her neighbor's house.

A tall boy of sixteen came into Alicia's view. He shook his shaggy brown hair and smiled his crooked-toothed smile in way of greeting. "What did you need?"

"For you and Jennifer to come over. We're inviting Nelson and Max, too; and maybe a couple of other people." Alicia's face showed her anticipation at one last chance at having fun over her holiday.

"Yep. I'll get Jen and we'll be over in five minutes. You're lucky our parents aren't home otherwise . . . Well, you know how they are about us getting more than a few meters from the house." Michael turned his back and started retreating towards the staircase that Alicia could see only out of the corner of her eye.

Before he was out of earshot, Alicia shouted, "So it'll be about ten, then?"

"You know it!" shouted Michael.

Alicia pulled her head from the fireplace and shook the soot from her auburn hair. "Alright, guys." Alicia walked back over to Stan, Emma, Marcia and Ashley. "Invite as many people as you want. I don't really care what Mum and Dad come home to at this point, we're leaving for Hogwarts tomorrow and I want something about this holiday to make it amazing. Oh, and someone remember to Floo Max and Nelson, they'll have a fit if we forget to invite them again."

Before Alicia turned around and began to ascend the stairs, everyone caught a flash of her hazel eyes sparking with excitement. "Let's make this night a night that we'll remember forever."


	2. Chapter 2

1The chlorine water splashed high above the blue, crystal clear pool as Ella Chiser dove in headfirst.

She surfaced from the bottom of the pool and pushed her dirty blond hair out of her face. The morning sun was shining brightly, and Ella took advantage of this by lying out on the pool deck and tanning her pale skin. The lazy summer heat tired Ella and she fell into a light sleep, only to be woken an hour later by her father.

"Ella, Amanda is calling; come get the phone." Ella groaned as the bright sunlight stabbed at her eyes and slowly lifted herself off the smooth wood.

She lightly walked toward the edge of the deck and stepped onto the soft, green grass with her barefeet. As Ella crossed her freshly-mown lawn she was sure to watch out for anything her dog, Lady, a border-collie mix, may have left on the ground.

She chatted amiably to her friend Amanda for a few minutes, before placing the phone back in its cradle.

The telephone was not the only Muggle item that Ella had in her house; her mother was a Muggle-born that had gone to Hogwarts and her father was a pure Muggle. Whenever she had any of her magical friends over during the holidays, they were always fascinated with the television, computer and the dishwasher; all of which seemed to work like some kind of magic.

Not wanting to go back out into the now intense heat, Ella walked toward her air-conditioned bedroom. She smiled at Lady, who was sitting erect on her bed, staring intently out of her window at a squirrel that was darting across the slanted front yard.

She walked over to her white bookcase and chose a novel written by a wizard, though from a Muggle's point of view. It was rather interesting to see how little the wizarding world actually knew about Muggles. She stretched out on her pink and white comforter, ready to settle into chapter four of the atrociously written story.

As she grew bored of the book, her brown eyes began to shoot around her room, finally settling on her dresser. The innocently white dresser was organized and held few make-up products and many pictures. Some were of her Muggle friends, some of her magical friends. One picture was a photo of four young women, each holding a baby. She smiled at the younger version of her mother and her mother's best friends. There were also some pictures of her parents, and loads of others too.

Unlike most people her age, she and her parents got along well. She could trust them with many things, and not expect them to get angry (without good reason, of course).

Just as Ella got up to put her book away, her mother knocked on her door and told her that lunch was ready. Ella placed her book back in the bookcase and wandered out into the kitchen. She gave her younger brother, Patrick, a scathing look before smiling brightly at her parents.

She grabbed a sandwich from the large plate her mother had prepared and sat down at the dining room table; at the opposite end of her bothersome brother.

"Ella, Patrick, do you have all of your school stuff?" Mrs. Chiser was always on top of things, and hoped that any last minute shopping was done earlier in the day rather than later.

"Yes, Mum," Ella and Patrick chorused. Ella rolled her eyes, knowing how likely it was that Patrick had forgotten something on his list and would have to owl home for it. i He's just forgetful like that, /I Ella thought, slightly annoyed.

"And your trunks packed; clothes set out?" Ella and Patrick both nodded. "Excellent! Well, then, why don't we all take a trip down to the beach today, to celebrate the last day of summer."

"Well, I'm going even if you lot don't!" declared Mr. Chiser, whose brown hair contrasted from that of his wife and children's. "I'm going back to that stuffy, dank office tomorrow and I'll need to soak in some sun rays."

"No way, Dad. You're not going," cried Ella. She sounded truly scandalized about the idea of her father going to the beach with them. "Don't you remember what happened last time?"

It took Mr. Chiser a moment to realise what his daughter was talking about, but he soon broke out into a hearty chuckle at the memory. Mrs. Chiser and Patrick also joined in the laughter when they remembered the only event that their family could be talking about. Even Ella spared a laugh at her own expense.

"Oh, come on, Ella. It was funny." At the look on his daughter's face, which only a hint of a smile was left, he said, "Oh, all right. I promise to behave."

A while later, after everyone had had their fill of sandwiches and changed for swimming. 13-year-old Patrick took off at top speed from the conversation his family was having, crying out, "Last one to the beach is a rotten egg!"

hr 

Emily Potter, a fairly tall girl with dark brown hair, rose from her bed at around nine o'clock to the whip-like sound of one of her family's house elves Apparating. Sighing dramatically, she climbed out of bed and wrapped a dressing gown around herself.

Emily stepped out of her ravishingly decorated bedroom into a the rest of her family's mansion. The ownership of the mansion, Potter Manor, had supposedly been passed down in her father's family for millenniums, before finally landing in the hands of her father, Harry Potter.

She continued through the hallways down to the kitchen, greeting each portrait that acknowledged her on the way down.

"Morning, Mum, Dad," Emily said cheerfully. She smiled at her twin brother, Brian, and her younger sister, Kathleen. Emily, a naturally perky girl, flashed a smile as she asked, "So, what are we doing today? I mean, it i is /I the last day before school starts."

"Nothing," Mrs. Potter answered pleasantly, her chocolate brown eyes fleeting from i The Daily Prophet /I for only a moment.

Emily's brilliant brown eyes faltered. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," her father answered solidly.

Slightly put out, Emily continued to eat her breakfast. After excusing herself, she wandered into the living room, and sat down on the couch. Emily pouted for a few moments, wondering what on earth she would do with herself. It wasn't as if she couldn't entertain herself, but she had been so excited for something big.

As her parents left the kitchen, whispering, something about their demeanor caught her attention. Emily immediately wanted to know what they were talking about. Curious, she followed them upstairs, to a room that was usually reserved for when her father was talking business with someone from the Ministry.

Emily already knew from experience that the room was Imperturbable. None of the magical products she had acquired from her uncles would work, but another trick that had taught her might. She ran to her room and grabbed a few bobby pins that she would have, in most cases, used on her hair.

She was sure that the past inhabitants of the manor had not thought to protect the room against Muggle means of entering, and as far as she knew, her father hadn't either. She stuck the thin, brown pin into the small key hole and jiggled it around for about a minute until she finally heard the faint click she had been listening for.

She eased the door open slightly and listened for snatches of her parents conversation. Luckily for her, the large, scarcely furnished room echoed. By the time she retracted her head a little while later, she knew that her parents were planning on having a big party with her cousins.

Satisfied that her last day would not be boring, and that she had succeeded in finding out what she hoped for, Emily walked back to her room and lounged for a little while. She was pulled from her calm daydreams when she heard her mother calling for her.

She ran downstairs, already knowing about the 'surprise.' She was sure that her parents caught on to the fact that she knew, though, when she unconvincingly acted flabbergasted to see her relatives. So, Emily wasn't the best actress in the world.

Nevertheless, Emily greeted her Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron enthusiastically, having not seen them for a good few weeks. She was also sure to greet her four cousins, only one of which, Samantha, was still young enough to attend Hogwarts.

A few hours later the Potters and the Weasleys sat down to dinner at the Potter mansion for one final dinner together before the kids were sent back to Hogwarts. Emily smiled at her family; as much as they bugged her, she loved them so much. She raised her glass and cleared her throat to call the attention of her family. "Here's to having one heck of a year." 

hr

It was long after noon when Jamie O'Flaherty finally got out of bed. She left the room still in her thin nightdress and greeted her older cousin, whose house she had stayed at throughout most of the holiday.

She yawned loudly and continued down the stairs to the kitchen where a plate of cold pancakes was sitting on the table. Grabbing a few and continuing out the back door until she was outside, Jamie sat down on the wooden bench near the wilting garden.

The garden, which was once thriving with vegetables and blossoming flowers, had been neglected for far too long and was no longer the beautiful sight that it once was; but Jamie hardly remembered it in its glory. She was only a few years old when her aunt had become preoccupied and the garden was forgotten. No one had time for the poor little garden, and after her aunt and uncle died, no one made any attempt to regrow it. Occasionally, when Jamie visited, she would water a few of the plants that were still making a pitiful attempt to live.

Jamie tore her pancakes apart into pieces and scattered a few around the yard every once in a while she would eat a part of the pancake herself. She played with the fringe of her platinum blond hair as she watched birds come into the yard, scavenging the meagre rations she had thrown for them.

Heaving a sigh about her return to school, Jamie went back inside. She Flooed her mother (who had remained at her home while Jamie chose to stay with her cousin) who told her that she had already gotten Jamie's books and other school items. Jamie thanked her mother and trudged up to the bathroom, getting a head start on her late day.

After she had showered and towelled herself off with her favourite fluffy, pink towel, Jamie dressed in Muggle clothing and yelled to her cousin that she was going out. Slamming the door very slightly behind her, Jamie walked up the leaf-strewn road; where she and her cousin lived, fall came early.

"Jamie!" Jamie had been watching the leaves swirl with the wind, but looked up when she heard a deep, male voice call her name. She smiled at the attractive brunette boy.

"Hey, Steven. When did you and your family get back from Italy?" Steven, his mother, his father and younger brother had gone to visit a few of their relatives and had been gone for the entire summer.

"Just a little while ago," he replied, coming and giving her a quick hug. "We were going to stay for a while longer, put Thomas caught a bad case of Dragon Pox and Mum and Dad brought him home.""That sounds bloody awful," claimed Jamie. She scrunched up her porcelain face at the mere though of Dragon Pox, an unpleasant illness that she had thankfully avoided. Her long, pale arms swung slightly at her sides as she and Steven continued to walk down the road.

Changing the subject, though not for any particular reason, Jamie said, "You really should try and convince your parents to let you come to Hogwarts this year. Why do they even make you go to that school in America with all those Yankee snobs?"

Steven smiled sadly. "Don't you think I've already tried? They both went to that school, so they're convinced that I should too. I won't complain, though; it's not as bad as you seem to think."

"But they don't have such beautiful landscapes there, do they?" queried Jamie, her blue eyes scanning the lush grasses, and the crisp, warm colours of fall.

Steven didn't answer, and Jamie didn't press for one. They both kept walking in a comfortable silence, both a little lost in their own thoughts. Jamie's eyes darted between the dead, browning leaves that were scattered along the paved road, and the still bright, colourful leaves of the trees.

"Why don't you come to school with me?" Steven spoke out of the blue. Jamie was taken aback for such a short time that it was not even noticeable; her cool, calm demeanor was not visibly broken.

"I couldn't," she said quietly. "I couldn't just drop my life and friends like that."

"So I could?" Steven looked slightly cross with her. Jamie was ashamed, but not embarrassed when she realised what he was talking about.

"I suppose I was being a bit hypocritical."

"A bit, but not on purpose; I was just proving a point."

Jamie shrugged, already over what had happened. "Just promise me one thing." She smiled sweetly at Steven, enhancing her already gorgeous features. "Don't forget us little people back here in Britain when your Minister for Magic in America, okay?"

Steven chuckled and the slight tension that had sat between the two was gone. They continued walking for another few hours, sometimes talking, sometimes remaining silent. As much as Jamie wanted to return to Hogwarts, she knew one thing for sure, she was going to miss moments like these.


	3. Chapter 3

1An hour later the Babas had arrived and the house had been transformed into the perfect party spot. Spells had been cast to keep certain places off limits, as well as other charms to safety-proof the places that people were allowed. Decorations were skipped, as everyone knew they'd just come down by the end of the party.

Everyone had put a lot of effort into preparing the party, and so quickly at that. But Alicia didn't see it that way. After someone had left whatever they were doing, be it organizing or cooking the food or proofing the house, Alicia would come in and change it according to what she felt it needed to be. 

Despite Alicia's feeling about the sub-par party, she was downstairs and excited about the commencement of the occasion as everyone else. There was a 'whoosh' of the fire as it turned bright green and a tall, slightly chubby boy of fourteen stepped out, soon followed by another tall boy, this one more on the skinny side and sixteen years old. 

"Licia!" cried the older, thinner boy. His pale face lit up at seeing his older cousin's reaction at her nickname. He smiled good-naturedly and gave a friendly hug to Alicia.

"Max, can you please not to get too much soot on the carpet? There's only so much magic can do to fix that." Alicia skipped formally greeting the younger cousin and went straight to scolding him. "Hello, Nelson," she said, addressing the boy that had first greeted her. 

Turning away from her everyone, she looked at the satin, jade-coloured couches. "Ashley, are you sure everything's protected well enough? I know I said I didn't care what Mum and Dad thought earlier, but I don't fancy getting a howler on the first day of school." 

"Yes," Ashley said, lacing the word with a sigh. "You really do need to be less paranoid. For someone so spontaneous you sure put a lot of thought into things." 

Choosing to ignore her sister and resist starting a fight, Alicia instead turned to the fireplace, where another loud 'whoosh' had been heard. It seemed that her cousins' arrival had started the party; people were currently flooding into the living room, and Alicia was sure that there were others arriving in the kitchen too. 

As the group in the living room became larger (more people arriving as well as those from the kitchen walking in) Alicia recognized more and more people. Some that she knew were her sisters' friends and some that were hers. She knew that she should have felt bad that none of Emma's friends had been allowed to come, but she couldn't help her euphoria that the party would not, after all, be infested with a bunch of children.

After a glance at the number of people (which was nearing fifty) she nodded to her sister, Ashley, who made a quick sweeping gesture of her wand, and music started. Directly after, she made two sharp motions and seemed to be mouthing a spell as food appeared on the tables strategically set up around the room.

Bouncing slightly to the music, Alicia left the room for the quiet of the kitchen. She leaned on the counter and plucked a piece of treacle tart off of a tray. Though the music was blaring only a few meters away, the rest of the house had been sound-proofed and Alicia basked in the reprieve from the noise. 

With no one else in the kitchen, the room was practically silent; Alicia couldn't help but gasp as she heard the loud sound of someone Flooing into the room. 

Alicia's eyes stared at the guest. First in shock, which soon progressed to mild anger. A girl of average height stood before her; her light brown eyes slightly defiant, though she looked more anxious than anything else. 

"Why is it," began Alicia is a voice that sounded pleasant enough, "that after six years of nothing, you feel the need to come a pay me a visit?" Over the years, Alicia had developed a policy of ignorance toward the three girls that she had once considered her best friends, but once they came inside her house, she couldn't exactly ignore them. 

But the girl, Ella, was unable to answer for a rather lanky redhead stumbled through the fireplace straight into her. They both fell to the ground in a clumsy pile of limbs. "Sorry, Ella," the girl mumbled with a smile. 

"That's all right." Ella smiled and pulled herself up from the ground, almost forgetting that Alicia was still standing, waiting for an answer with her hands folded across her chest and her hazel eyes glaring intensely at Ella.

As Ella and the girl were gathering their bearings, another girl came through the fire, this one with jet black hair and a much more composed atmosphere. She did have a rather annoyed look on her face. Her dark, thin eyebrows were raised and her mouth was in a slight frown and she was looking pointedly at the girl with the red hair. "Samantha, I told you that I did not want to come."

Alicia's eyes, which had been focused on Ella, shot over to the new arrival. She was the second of her three old best friends. If looks could kill, Emily would have been dead six years ago. Even back when they all had been friends, Alicia had liked Emily the least. Haughty personalities did not suit anyone, not even Harry Potter's daughter.

Alicia resisted the urge to scream and shout, and instead stalked out of the room to find Stan. By the time she saw Stan, her stalk was upgraded to a stomp and she looked ready to kill. Stan simply stood waiting for her to come and complain with a smirk on his face. 

"They're back," Alicia growled. In fact, her words were so contorted by unnatural deepness of her voice that Stan almost didn't catch what she said. 

"Who's back?"

It finally occurred to Alicia that in the six years that she had known Stan, she had never told him about Ella, Jamie and Emily.

"It's a long story," muttered Alicia. Now that she had brought it up, she didn't want to talk about it. Years later, she was still regretting it.

"No, no, I'd like to hear it, we have plenty of time." Stan stood waiting for Alicia to agree.

"No. I mean, it's really, really long," protested Alicia. She stressed her point by making a face that must have been comical, because Stan burst into laughter upon seeing it.

"Well, the party is going to last for a while."

Alicia sighed and rolled her eyes. Grabbing Stan's hand, she led him out of the living room and into a room down the hall. 

Alicia frowned at the white room; its lack of colour was unnerving, especially since she was already a wreck about something. Alicia had never actually told this story to anyone before. Only the girls involved in it knew the real story, and even they didn't know Alicia's feelings on it. 

She took a deep breath. "Well, I guess it started with our mothers. They were best friends during their time at Hogwarts, and stayed friends. So we all sort of grew up together." At Stan's insistence, Alicia told him the names of her friends. "Ella, Emily and Jamie? Do you know them? None are in Gryffindor. Well, when I was sorted, the Sorting Hat told me all of these horrible things about the other houses. To be honest, I almost believed it; I wasn't anything like I am now. But I really didn't want it to be true, so I just ignored it. But my guess it that it told the rest of them too. Ella must believed it right off the bat and seemed to be determined to find the bad things about us. Emily made so many new friends, and, well, I don't really know what happened, but it seemed that she just started to see the horrible things that the hat told her. I still don't know what the hat said to all of them."

As Alicia told Stan the story, she began to become more comfortable with it. She was determined to finish; she realised then that it was something she should have done much earlier. "Jamie. I don't even know what happened with her. She just didn't seem to care what the hat said. She still says 'hi' to all of us in the corridors. I think she just kind of went with the flow when we stopped being friends. But, I guess just like Emily, I started to see all the faults in them. Jamie over-shadowed all of us, but it didn't really matter, I think that if I wasn't so intent on keeping this friendship apart, I still would have been friends with Jamie. And, I mean, what was wrong with me? I don't even remember why I was so focused on making sure we didn't become friends again; I can't even remember anymore, it just became habit after a while. And Emily, well, she was always really up on herself. It just got worse when we got to school. After the Sorting, we still talked a bit, but she always seemed to consider herself better than the rest of us because everyone else did." Alicia lifted her eyes from the frayed thread of the old blanket she was sitting on. Stan was just looking at her. His face betrayed no emotion or reaction, and Alicia began to wonder if he was really listening. 

"But worse than any of them was Ella. Out of all of them, she was my best friend. We complimented each other perfectly. I was bold and reckless; Ella was always there to keep from doing anything rash, just like I was there to push her past her boundaries once in a while and turn her onto something she liked. She hated me so much. As soon as she hopped off of that stool I knew something was wrong. Her face was terrorized, and she kept shooting glances at Jamie, Emily and I. No one else in the Great Hall seemed to notice her face, I guess because she looked like every other nervous first year out there. I still didn't care, I wasn't letting my best friend go

that easily. But then she did something I never would have thought, never. The quiet, kind Ella that I knew would never do what she did.

"She went and played on my weakness. She called me weak, she told me that I wasn't worth the brain that I never seemed to use. She insulted my intelligence and my strength, two things I held with pride. It wasn't so much an insult as it was a personal attack, or at least that's how I felt. Anyway, to make a long story short, it took a few years, but I made sure that I wasn't the least bit stupid or weak. I'd become so paranoid about my grades, and I was sure that I never showed weakness to anyone. Although, I didn't realise it then, she was kind of right. The reason I was doing all that was because she called me weak. I don't even think she meant it, she was blinded by what the Sorting Hat said, and used what she knew against me. But everyday, I regret what happened. Sometimes I wish I could just go back and strangle that sorting hat before it said a thing." 

"Oh," said Stan. His face was still un-readable.

"Oh?" Alicia repeated. Her voice sounded not hurt, but rather annoyed. "Were you even listening?" 

"Yeah, I just . . . Didn't know how to reply to that." He shrugged and Alicia blundered into the thought that it might have been rather awkward for Stan to learn all that information. After all, Alicia wasn't one to go pouring her heart out to people on a daily basis. "So," he said, putting his new information to use, "they're back, as in here?" 

"Yep." Alicia's eyebrows arched and then fell again as she said this. Stan found it funny, but didn't say so. He figured Alicia wasn't in the best state to be made fun of. "Come on."

Alicia held her arm out, and Stan linked his with her. Happily, and Alicia feeling much better now that at least one person knew how she felt, they strolled from the isolated room, and back into the raging party. 

"You know, I lost a lot of great time talking about something not necessarily so fun, so let's party hard!" Sliding her arms so the her hand was in Stan's she pulled him into a wild dance, which he soon followed suit. The two were attracting much attention. Even to the slow songs, they didn't stop their uninhibited head banging and crazy jumps. 

As it grew late, and the number of guests diminished, Alicia's natural high did not subside. The often quiet girl was attracting the attention of many people. When Alicia's activity finally diminished, and she collapsed heavily onto her family's soft, plush couch, she was approached by a vaguely familiar face.

The boy's longish dirty blond hair and tall physique registered as attractive to Alicia. "Hi," the boy said tentatively. "Alicia, right?" 

"Yeah," she answered. "And, you're Collin?" Collin nodded in affirmation. "I think you were in my Potions class last year; a Slytherin, right?"

The boy nodded shyly. Alicia remembered something she had observed and spoke her mind. "You seemed a lot less shy in class last year." 

"I get shy when I'm around cute girls." Alicia smiled coyly and could already feel the blush creeping up in her cheeks. She didn't try to hide it, her blush wasn't telling Collin anything that her dancing eyes couldn't.

"Listen, I have to go," Collin said, "but I'll see you in school."

Leaving a smiling Alicia with a wave, he took a handful of Floo power from the large flower pot next to the fireplace. He threw the powder into the fire and after mumbling something, he stepped in and vanished. 

Stan watched in annoyance from the side. The guy, Collin, had made Alicia act in a way that she never was, girlish and shy. He had known Collin last year, and didn't exactly dislike the guy, but if he turned Alicia into something so annoying, he wasn't going to be too happy. 

After a few moments, Alicia smacked herself on the head reminded herself not to get too attached to a guy. Except Stan, but he didn't count; he was her best friend.

Of course, that didn't stop Alicia from taking a look at one of her sister's older friends as he walked by and got ready to Floo himself away from the party. Jet black hair, electrifying blue eyes, a height so tall that the Alicia was sure he towered over her by at least a foot and a half, and she was fairly sure by his broad chest that he was extremely muscled. She vaguely remembered his name starting with an 'L.'

Stan noticed her staring and came over to her. With a sigh and in an incredibly fake, girly voice, he said, "Oh, he's cute " 

Playing along, Alicia turned around to look at Stan, flabbergasted. "Stan, I can't believe you. Now you've broken my heart, how am I going to marry you when you're in love with someone else?" 

"Oh. Oh, well," he teased. Playfully, he shoved Alicia off the couch, and she landed with a hard thud. 

In a whisper, Alicia promised Stan that he'd be dead within the hour. Making a mental note to gather her siblings in a while, Alicia took off after Stan, screaming about murders and Azkaban. Sometimes, even being the grown-up seventeen-year olds that they were, they just had to act like two year olds.


	4. Chapter 4

Alicia crashed down onto her bed a few hours later, still fully clothed. It had to be nearing three o'clock in the morning. After waiting for all the guests to leave, enlisting her family and Stan in cleaning up and packing her trunk, she was exhausted. Falling asleep on top of the covers of her bed, she felt deeply sorry for the poor soul that had to wake her up on time the next day.

The next morning, after she had been woken up, Alicia changed her mind so that she was sorry for herself, rather than Stan, who had woken her up. After a screeching loud sound reverberated through her ears Alicia was informed that it was seven o'clock in the morning. She glared at Stan's laughing blue eyes. Running on what was barely four hours of sleep, Alicia brushed her knotty morning hair out of her face and dragged her feet all the way to the bathroom to take a hot shower.

After spending a long time in the shower, mostly standing under the scalding hot water, Alicia turned off the tap and towelled herself dry. Wrapping the rough towel around herself she walked from the bathroom to her room, closing and locking the door behind her.

Alicia went into her closet and searched desperately for her favourite pair of black skinny jeans, and a royal blue short-sleeved t-shirt. Upon finding them, she tugged the pants on and pulled the shirt over her head. Slipping on her black ballet flats, she grabbed her wand off of her nighttable and levitated her trunk out of her room and down to the kitchen.

Thanks to Stan, it wasn't even nine o'clock when she was ready to go, and the Hogwarts Express didn't leave until eleven. Rather than going to the platform early and having to talk to all of her peers, Alicia walked outside into her backyard. The yard was fairly small, but the property expanded into the woods.

A few years ago, Alicia could have been content to sit down and read for a few hours. But her spirit had progressed from a daring, but calm spirit, to a daring, but restless one. When Stan left the house a few minutes after Alicia, he wasn't all that surprised to see her scaling up one of the larger, thicker trees in the expansive woods.

Carefully stepping around the prickly bramble that littered the woods, Stan reached the base of the trees trunk and called up to Alicia, "What are you doing? Aren't you a little old to be climbing trees?"

Settling herself on a large branch, hoping it wouldn't collapse under her weight, Alicia responded, "No, haven't I ever taught you anything? If there's one thing a person needs to know, it is that you can never be too old for anything." Alicia paused for a moment and reconsidered. "Well, I'm sure there are a few things, but tree-climbing is not one."

"Whatever you say." Stan shrugged and began to climb up after her. Halfway up the tree, Stan noticed that Alicia had stopped climbing. Looking up, he saw Alicia curled up on a branch, positioned so that she was sure to stay on. She was reading a book that he couldn't identify. i Well/I he thought, i some things never change. /I

"Are you going to come down?" asked Stan a minute later. He had finished climbing the tree and was currently nursing a bleeding thumb. He shook it vigorously, trying to get the sting to go away.

"Eventually," answered Alicia, hers eyes never leaving the book she was reading. When she heard no movement and assumed Stan was still sitting directly beside her, she turned to tell him off and instead began to laugh at Stan making such a big deal over the seemingly small cut on his thumb.

Stan merely looked up from his thumb and glared at Alicia. "Kiss it and make it better?"

Alicia looked at his almost entirely bloodied thumb. "Maybe after it's stopped bleeding."

It was silent for a few moments before Stan said, much more serious than he had been last time he had spoken, "So, are you ready to go back?"

Alicia groaned. "Stan, don't. Please, I don't want to talk about it." By this point Alicia had marked her page and closed her book. To keep herself occupied, she began to scratch into the thick bark of the tree with her bitten-down nails.

"Alicia, as much as I want to tell you that no one will remember, that would be lying. Every single student that was at Hogwarts last year will remember, and I'm sure some of the First years will have been informed by their older siblings."

Alicia looked as if she was going to shout, but instead said, "At least you were honest. Everyone I've ever met has always babied me into thinking naively. I'd be completely screwed up if I'd never met you." When the tips of her fingers became raw, Alicia stopped scratching the tree, and instead laced her fingers together. Her fingers were wiggling back and forth and she was squeezing her hands unconsciously.

Stan took Alicia's twisted compliment with a smile. Not one for expressing emotions, Alicia's compliment was a rarity. "Well, I said it mostly because I know you would've done the same for me."

Sighing deeply, resigning herself to talking with Stan, Alicia mumbled, "Yeah, I would've." She paused for a long time, then added, "You're pretty lucky, Stan. This is twice in two days that you're going to get some information out of me."

She cupped her hands in her face and dug her fingers lightly into her cheeks. Tipping her head up, she slid her hands off of her face. "I don't want to face them all; I can't take all of the pity."

Alicia snorted and grimaced. "I don't even care when they gossip about me," claimed Alicia, stressing every word as she dug her nails into her hands, leaving small, slice-like marks. "But I can't avoid those saddened stares and those condolences, real or fake."

"Alicia, you just came out of a well-publicized, four-year long relationship." Stan shook his head amusement. Alicia thought there might have been a small dash of pity, but dismissed it; Stan knew what pity did to her, he wouldn't purposely mess with her mind. "A relationship that ended with your boyfriend cheating on you and a very loud break-up in front of the entire Great Hall the day that the train departed. Everyone feels bad for you, whether they knew you or not, and those that don't are either me, or your enemies."

Alicia shook with nerves and she put of what she was going to say for another minute or so when she practically shouted, "But that's just it! Everyone thinks that I'm supposed to hate Sean, that I'm supposed to want to claw his insides out and bury him alive, but I don't! I don't hate him, I talked to him over the summer, we're still fairly good friends, well, acquaintances. No one knows what I went through and they're all acting like they do. As if that wasn't enough for me, I just know I'm going to be bombarded with questions. How do I know? Because I received about a million owls over the summer asking what had happened. Owls that I ignored and continued to ignore as second, third and fourth letters came." By the time that Alicia had finished her rant, she was breathing heavily, and her eyes had darkened from their natural, gold flecked hazel to a darker hazel. The gold flecks disappeared from her eyes and had been replaced by so many deep, green spots that her eyes could have been mistaken for a forest. Her shoulders and arms were visibly tense and anyone could sense the anger and frustration flowing from her.

Stan was not as thick as most of the boys at Hogwarts. Having Alicia for his best friend had taught him a fair few things. Any other boy could have assumed that Alicia's anger was hiding her distress at the break-up, and possibly of what people would think of her, because that's what anyone would assume. Stan knew that Alicia was being entirely truthful. When she became so heavily angered, her mind always seemed to become muddled, and she wouldn't think about what she was saying.

In one quick movement he grabbed the hand that Alicia had gone back to digging into the dark wood of the tree with and brought her attention to him. Stan looked out into the vast green forest, for the first time just how high in the tree they were. Alicia didn't seem the least bit perturbed, which was odd considering that Alicia always seemed to have a problem with heights. Remembering what he needed to ask her, Stan abandoned his old memories and stared Alicia in the eyes.

He expected her to look away but she did not; she held his gaze. Both knew the question Stan was going to ask, and both knew the answer. "Don't let that bother you either, just ignore them all. I already know why you don't hate Sean. We both know that I know and I'm not going to push you for information you don't need to give me."

In a soft quiet whisper, not wanting to admit it but knowing that she had to say it, whether Stan demanded it of her or not. Alicia confided in Stan, "It would have been hypocritical of me to hate him for that."

Had they been alone inside a building, the silence would have clanged throughout the room. However, up in a tree, surrounded by a sea of other trees, the birds chirping and the unmistakable sound of insects provided the gap of silence with sound.

"Come on," said Stan after an amount of time. "It's probably getting near the time to leave. Your sister will be furious if we're not there and she has to get your parents into it."

Nodding and smiling to herself, Alicia tugged on a lock of Stan's long-ish, light brown hair. In response to the annoyed look on Stan's face, Alicia said, "Thanks. I owe you more than you know."

"Okay, then let me win in our race back to the house." With that, Stan began to climb desperately down the tree, determined to finally beat out Alicia's persistence.

Throwing out one last sentence before racing back down the tree, carefully avoiding hanging vines, and sharp twigs, Alicia cried, "Well, I don't owe you that much! You know I can't just let you win."

As she darted through the forest, Alicia watched out for any tree roots, or rocks that were scattered in they way of her and Stan's racing path. Alicia tended to forget that her long feet would always hook on something when she didn't even realise it. After she finally emerged out of the forest and into the clearing, she broke into a sprint. Determined to catch up with Stan who had a large lead, she pushed her self as far as she could.

Despite her efforts, she still burst through the open door a mere few seconds after Stan had. Stan was leaning against the extremely white wall, panting, and had his hands rested on his knees. Gathering a lot of spare air, he gasped, "Finally, I won!"

Panting equally as hard, Alicia defended her title. "No, you didn't. It wasn't a fair race. I had to watch where I was going in the forest."

Stan shrugged and smirked. Alicia wanted to wipe the smirk straight off his face, but instead collapsed into a laughing fit. When she finally regained her breath and Stan questioned her as to what was so funny, she only smirked superiorly, just as Stan had when he won.

Alicia beckoned Stan from what she felt was the annoying white kitchen, into the living room. She and Stan walked over and waited for Alicia's oldest sister to come and direct their arrival at Platform 9 3/4. Alicia reluctantly allowed Stan to push her into going first. She was tapping her foot incessantly on the hard, oak floor.

"This has to be the first year that I haven't wanted to return to Hogwarts," muttered Alicia. She was clearly dreading something, only Stan knew exactly why, but her Fourth year sister, Marcia knew bits and pieces. Emma had no idea what was going on and why her sister, who had been so enthusiastic to go to school the day before, was so nervous.

By the time Ashley arrived and sent them along, Alicia's confident appearance had diminished to that of someone dreading something fully and completely, which she was. Taking a deep breath, she Flooed to a special secluded area of King's Cross station. Alicia, her sisters and Stan exited the room to see that they were almost directly across from the platform. Re-gripping the trunks that they had taken with them (and each carrying an animal) they casually walked towards the barrier, sliding into the brick wall when no one appeared to be looking.

They came out on the others side of the barrier. It was so crowded that moving was hardly an option. It was at a peak time; most students had already arrived, but no one wanted to board the Hogwarts Express just yet.

"Cover me," Alicia whispered to Stan.

"Uh, no. It's better to get it over with . . . Besides, are you really scared of all of them?"

Alicia's stance suddenly became less slouchy and more straight, as well as her face becoming alert. "Of course not." Stan had, as he intended to, provoked this reaction out of her.

Alicia walked towards the train, levitating her trunk behind her. She noticed the stares she was getting, and each person whispering to the next as she passed. By the time Alicia reached the entrance to the Hogwarts Express and the seemingly thousands of people, she couldn't contain herself. The cool composure she had attempted failed.

She turned violently towards one of her classmates. A Gryffindor, like her, but only an acquaintance. "Don't you have anything better to talk about than something that happened to someone that you barely know two months ago? Is your life that pathetic that you don't?"

The colour was high on Alicia's cheeks with fury and frustration. Her concentration had broken and her trunk had fallen crashing to the ground. Her outburst and the sound her trunk made as it hit the stone floor called the attention of almost the entire platform. Too worked-up to cast and hold another spell, Alicia grabbed the handle of her trunk and jerked if with her as she stormed onto the train.

Stan, who had been standing back, watching the entire time, was amazed that Alicia had done that. As he rushed past all the people, he noticed that the girl Alicia had screamed at was crying. He groaned inwardly; Alicia most likely didn't think before she yelled, she probably didn't consider her words.

And he was correct. The first thing out of Alicia's mouth a few minutes later when he found her sitting inside a compartment were, "Oh, I feel like such an idiot. How could I have said that?"

Her face was still red, and her trunk was thrown haphazardly onto the rack; it looked as if it would fall with the tiniest jolt. Alicia's hair was a mess as if she had been pulling at it an the pained look in her eyes showed her uncertainty.

"I honestly don't know," claimed Stan. "I don't understand the things you do sometimes, but you should probably apologize."

"I should," agreed Alicia. She paused for a few moments. "But I can't. I remember this one time, I must have been just three years old. My mother and father used to take Ashley and I to the beach all the time. There was this one girl, and we took turns dumping buckets of water on each other. I dumped it on her head, not knowing that she didn't want water dumped on her head and she began to cry. My father told me to apologise but I wouldn't. Even when he threatened to take me home I refused to."

"Well, you were three then," Stan reasoned. "You're seventeen now, you've grown up."

"Could we please just not talk about this?" Alicia interjected before Stan could continue. "I'd rather just think about it later."

"You brought it up," Stan reminded her.

Alicia went over to her trunk and pulled out a pack of Exploding Snap cards. Stan couldn't help but notice a rather large dent in the trunk, procured from its most recent crash. The game was stiff and conversation sparse until Stan lost an eyebrow and part of his hair had burned off. It got Alicia laughing, and the mornings events were quickly pushed into the back of her mind. Although she was able to have a good time, genuinely laughing, a sense of foreboding and dread loomed over her the whole time, making her slightly uncomfortable.

It wasn't until the train had been going for a couple hours before Stan and Alicia was disturbed. Emma and Marcia came and sat down in the compartment. Both were sensible enough not to bring up what had happened. Alicia was temporarily distracted with Emma's abundance of questions.

A shadow appeared outside of the opal glass of the compartment door. It slide smoothly open and Emily stood in the doorway, her deep brown eyes amused. "I see you've changed a lot since we were friends. At least you used to be able to keep your temper in check, and you were never that rude."

Alicia's shoulders and hands tensed, but she was determined not to respond to the Emily's taunting. She concentrated on unblinkingly staring into Emily's eyes, making her own eyes speak more than any words could have. Alicia brushed her auburn hair out of her eyes and arranged her face into a smirk, waiting for Emily to continue talking.

"It's a good thing that sorting hat warned me about all of you. I wouldn't want to be the victim of your anger; that poor girl is crying her eyes out." Emily delicately placed her hands on her hips.

With a calm that was so forced that you could hear her voice straining to say the words, Alicia said, "Why don't you just get the hell out of here, and leave me alone for the rest of my life?"

Emily snorted. "I fully planned to. I just needed to let you know how disappointed in your behaviour I was."

Emily turned to leave but was pulled roughly back into the compartment by Alicia's hand on her shoulder. "I changed my mind, why don't you stay for a while." She lightly shoved Emily down in the seat she had previously occupied, having long forgotten that Stan and her sisters were also in the compartment.

"You hypocrite. You tell me that I changed? I don't recall you ever going around and taunting people like that. Or was I just lucky enough to miss it all because you considered me somewhat your equal? Are you too good to be nice to me now, am I not high up enough of the food chain to be considered your friend? Well I don't care. Just do me a favour and get out now." The rage from earlier was back in a Alicia's face, but something in her eyes was different. Her gaze was more intense, and their seemed to be something hidden behind her fury, nostalgia.

Emily, who was shocked by Alicia's resurfacing temper, jumped up from her seat and left the compartment.

As soon as she left Alicia collapsed onto the floor. "Why? Why does it have to be this year? It's my last year at Hogwarts and now, all of a sudden, they're all back." Alicia looked up and Stan with a reflective face. "Except Jamie, I haven't seen her, and to be honest, she's the one I least mind at the moment."

Emma slid off of the red leather seat and sat next to Alicia, circling her arms around her angry and distressed older sister. As Alicia stayed where she was, still seething over something she knew, honestly, was no big deal, she felt two more pairs of arms encircle her.

"Don't cry," whispered Emma, who did not quite understand what was happening and seemed on the verge of tears herself.

Laughing, Alicia assured her sister, "I'm not crying, don't worry. Now, what are we all doing like this, let's have some fun!"

As if on queue, the trolley witch stuck her head into the compartment. "Anything off the trolley, dears?"

Alicia smiled and nodded. Leaving the compartment and coming back with her arms heaping full of sweets. She ripped open a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and threw one at Stan. It rebounded off of his head. "Hey, what was that for?"

In response, Alicia threw another bean at him. This time, he seemed to realise what he was supposed to do at the last moment. He jerked his head and opened his mouth, catching the bean soundly in it. He chewed for a moment, tentatively, then sighed in relief. "Cherry."

For an hour, Alicia, Stan, Marcia and Emma took turns throwing and catching beans. When they came across a bean they were sure would make them vomit, they'd open the window, make a wish, and throw it out, watching it swirl away with the wind.

As the sky darkened, they all threw their robes over their heads, not bothering to change into anything more than their Muggle clothing under.

The bright lights of Hogwarts soon became visible and Emma was fascinated by the sight. Even after they'd been living there for the majority of the last six years, Alicia and Stan were still amazed by the majesticness of the school.

As the train slowed, they all gathered their possesions, Marcia and Emma leaving to retrieve their own. As Alicia slowly made her way through the corridors of the slowing Hogwarts Express, she looked determinedly forward, refusing let herself be aggravated by the looks of her classmates.

As she stepped out into the bitter September night air that sent chills through her body, Alicia could hardly think for the problems and emotions throughout her. So she didn't. Alicia only smiled, greeted some of her friends and strolled confidently towards the castle, mentally cleaning her slate and giving herself one more chance to have a brilliant last year at school.

She pulled Stan along and opened random doors to the horse-less carriages. Alicia spotted Stan giving wary looks to each one the passed, but thought nothing of it at the moment. Finally, Alicia ran through the patch of carriages and found what she was looking for.

Standing in front of one of the carriages stood Alicia's friend, Katherine. Standing even shorter than Alicia, she could have passed for one of the first years. Her light blonde hair reached just below her shoulders and her pale, lightly freckled face was smiling brightly.

"Come on! James and Radley already in there; they're getting really jumpy." James and Radley were Katherine's two younger brothers, in fifth and third year, respectively.

Sure enough, as Alicia hoisted herself into the carriage after Katherine had climbed in she literally saw Radley bouncing in his seat, complaining to James about being hungry.

"So, Alicia, I heard you had an, er, interesting start of term?" Katherine, Alicia's best friend besides Stan was probably the only one (including Stan) that could possibly get away with taunting her about something that bothered her as much as that.

"I'd rather not talk about it. What I would like to do is cause some kind of trouble, you know, something fun to do." Alicia smiled deviously at Katherine. Alicia, if somewhat loud and obnoxious, was not usually one for trouble; neither was Katherine. However, when the two were together, it was a dangerous combination, and Stan knew it.

"I don't think so, you two," Stan intervened. "At least not without a sensible person with you to keep your heads on. One of you will screw up and you'll get in trouble. Do you really want more detention?"

"Hey!" Alicia countered, "you've gotten more detentions that I have. I've only had eight detentions the entire time we've been at Hogwarts. You've had at least fifteen."

"Yes, but they were all for one particular incident." Stan blushed and hid his face as they all shook silently in laughter.

"What's going on?" asked Radley. He had not been in Hogwarts when Stan had gotten his detentions for what all the teachers deemed 'disorderly conduct.'

"Nothing you'd be concerned with," Katherine unconvincingly assured him. "Now go back to complaining - actually, just stop talking at all."

"All right, all right, we get it. Now, what do you have in mind, before I completely change my mind and just let you to get in trouble because you never think ahead?"


	5. Chapter 5

1The carriage came to an abrupt halt before Stan, Katherine and Alicia had been able to finish planning. After leaving the carriage (along with James and Radley) behind them, they once again bent their heads and began whispering. Professor Bradley, who taught Arithmancy, was staring at them suspiciously as they walked by her, not noticing.

"I still think we should just stop the food from appearing during dinner," Alicia complained. She had thought of the brilliant idea and was adamant about making it happen.

Stan shook his head. "We can't do that. One, we have no idea how to stop the food from appearing, and two, we would also not get food. Do you really want that?"

Alicia and Katherine shook their heads furiously. Both girls practically had bottomless pits for stomaches, and neither could fathom missing dinner. Despite Stan's reasoning, Alicia pouted. "Fine, what do you suggest, then?"

Stan twisted his nose in thought.

"Can I offer my help?" All three turned around to see Collin, the guy that Alicia had met at the party. Alicia looked happy, and a bit shy to see him. Stan, upon seeing this, narrowed his eyes at Collin. Katherine, who knew Collin through her family just smiled and said hello.

"No, thank you."

"That would be nice."

Stan and Alicia turned to look at each other with equal looks of disbelief.

"Excuse them for a moment." Katherine pushed Stan and Alicia away, knowing they were about to argue.

"You weren't going to think of anything, and since my ideas are all 'rubbish' I don't see why he can't help," reasoned Alicia, not sure why Stan was acting so cold towards Collin, a guy both of them barely knew.

"This is our prank, Alicia. Yours, mine, and Katherine's. He shouldn't be involved."

"Whatever." Alicia scoffed and started to walk away. "This is such a stupid thing to fight over. Besides, we never said you had to help us; this was my idea and Katherine's idea."

By the time Stan and Alicia returned from behind the carriage that Katherine had pushed them, Collin was gone, thus solving their problems in a much simpler matter.

Before Alicia or Stan could ask any questions, Katherine said, "I told him to go away because he made you two fight."

Stan smiled as if he had just won the Quidditch Cup, and Alicia just burst out laughing. As much as she was interested in hanging out with Collin, maybe getting to know him a bit, she had to love Katherine's nature and sense of survival.

The three walked in silence for a little while, except for Alicia's slowly calming laughter. Just when Stan thought Katherine and Alicia had finally given up their idea, Alicia cried out, alarmingly loudly, "I've got an idea!"

Groaning, Stan asked, "Alright, what is it?"

Looking from Katherine to Stan, as if they were a raptured audience, Alicia proudly stated, "We magically lock everyone in the Great Hall."

"Brilliant!" cried Katherine.

"What the bloody hell?" argued Stan. "What kind of idea is that?"

"A brilliant one," claimed Katherine. "Now, either you're in, or you're not. Keep in mind this is your seventh and final year at this school."

After only a split second, Stan agreed. "Alright, I'll do it. Now what do you suppose we do?"

It was twenty minutes later as the Headmistress was leading the first-years into the Great Hall that Alicia, Katherine and Stan had realised their mistake. Not only did the barrier they had constructed keep people from getting out, it also kept others from getting in.

As a progressively frustrated Headmistress McGonagall tried many different spells on the invisible shield, Alicia grabbed her wand and slipped her hand under the table, making to undo the spell.

Stan saw what she going to do and grabbed her wrist. He slowly leaned over and whispered in her ear, "No, you can't. If you miss, say the wrong incantation, or anyone at all notices you, you could get in trouble."

The near silent hall all had their various eyes trained on the large, open doors and whatever was blocking the terrified first-years from entering. Most teachers hurried up from their seats by this point and were attempting, as well, to break down the barrier.

Katherine risked a look at Alicia, hoping no one noticed that she was breaking eye-contact from the scene, unlike everyone else in the Great Hall. She quietly gasped in horror as instead of seeing Alicia, she saw the stick-like form of Professor Bradley.

Quickly composing herself, Katherine asked, "Um, yes?"

Getting straight to the point, Professor Bradley spat, "I saw you three talking earlier. Could you possibly have anything to do with this?"

Alicia, hearing this, and worrying about Katherine's answer, butted in, though to too quickly. "No, Professor. This is the first day of my last year of school, the last thing I want is to get in or cause trouble."

Alicia, a practised lier, honestly sounded as if she had been telling the truth. Professor Bradely, convinced, but still slightly suspicious, hurried away and after a few minutes the team of Professors were able to find the correct counter-spell the invisible barrier that Alicia had cast earlier.

In an angry, huff, the Headmistress directed the first-years into the Great Hall and had them all sorted. In the excruciatingly long time it took to complete that, Alicia had been planning a story with Stan and Katherine, just in case they were suspected.

"Firstly, I would like to apologise to the new students at Hogwarts. Let me say, this is not something that happens on a regular basis, so please to not be alarmed tonight's confusion." Professor McGonagall went on into the rest of her customary start of term speech.

As the food finally appeared on the golden plates and their goblets filled with pumpkin juice, Alicia couldn't help but laugh at what could have happened if they had attempted her original plan.

With no evidence, the teachers seemed to have let the fairly harmless prank go. As dinner ended and Stan, Katherine and Alicia left the hall together, Alicia whispered to them, "Next time, we won't get away as easily. We'll have to plan better."

"Next time?" asked Stan, incredulous that the two insane girls he considered his two of his best friends would attempt another prank after such a close call.

He sighed as Alicia and Katherine nodded. Stan began talking a bit about his summer, Alicia wasn't listening as Katherine was, since she had already heard it all. Alicia was gently pulled from her friends and was a little nervous until she jerked from the person's grasp and saw who it was.

"Collin, oh. Hey." Alicia bit her lip for a second before continuing. "Er, what's up?"

"Listen, I don't really know you that well and all, but, uh, I think you're cute, and I wanted to know if you maybe wanted to hang out tomorrow, since it's Saturday and we don't have classes." Collin was looking down at the ground, uncharacteristically shy, and Alicia thought it was really nice that he wasn't as obnoxious as most guys she knew.

Smiling excitedly and filled with tentative shyness, Alicia nodded and agreed. "Alright."

Alicia smiled and turned to go, but Collin stopped her. "No hug?"

Alicia shrugged and gave him a quick hug, blushing madly. Alicia blushed easily, even when she wasn't embarrassed, so her face at the moment, normally someone in-between pale and a tan, was red, very red.

She turned away and hurried to catch up with Katherine and Stan. Katherine raised her eyebrows as Alicia settled next to her, panting slightly from the running. Stan hadn't noticed her absence, thankfully. Alicia couldn't quite figure out why, but she knew that Stan detested Collin. It didn't occur to Alicia until a bit later, as they finally arrived at the Fat Lady's portrait, that she had agreed to go on what was almost a date with a Slytherin. A Slytherin. And she was a Gryffindor.

If she thought her breakup with Sean had caused a scene, she didn't want to know what was going to happen with this controversy.


	6. Chapter 6

1Alicia burst into the common room as soon as the Fat Lady swung open to let her enter. She ran towards the couch and dove headfirst into its cushion, disturbing Michael Baba, who had been amiably conversing with someone sitting on the next couch over.

"Alicia," Michael roared, and spun around to glare at her. "Don't I get enough from you when we're at home?"

Alicia pretended to think long and hard about her answer before smiling widely and going,

"Um . . . No?" She laughed as Michael lunged and she jumped up and ran into the girl's dormitory before he could catch her.

She burst into the seventh-year girl's dormitory with Katherine a few steps behind her, and the conversation that had been going on between the other girls immediately stopped. Keira King, the unfortunate girl who had been the release of Alicia's anger earlier that day at the train station

She had been talking to Delilah Spencer and Angelina Abott, both of whom Alicia knew only as acquaintances. Keira was glaring at Alicia in a menacing way, and Delilah and Angelina, who has always been friendly enough to Alicia, were looking at her in disgust, as if she were a rancid piece of meat.

Alicia, who had felt sorry (even though she did not intend to say it,) was now freshly angered by the gossiping girls. In her sweetest, most sarcastic voice she could muster, Alicia said, "Don't mind me, continue your conversation! I'm sure it was thrilling, and important as well."

"You think you're so bloody special," Keira accused, none of the tears from earlier that day were visible. "You think you own the school, and you can just act however you want."

"Well spotted," said Alicia, her voice in a monotone.

Keira exchanged a look with Delilah and Angelina, her anger renewed by Alicia's disinterest. "Well-"

"Listen," began Alicia, cutting Keira off. "I shouldn't have acted how I did earlier, but I did. I meant every word I said, by the way. You might as well shut your mouth, because anything you say now, I won't listen or respond to; you'll be wasting your time."

Her speech concluded, Alicia went to the bed that had been hers for the past six years, opened the trunk beside it and began to unpack her clothing into the chest of drawers nearby.

A cough was heard by the door and all the girls turned to see who it was. A smaller girl, probably a third-year, informed Alicia that Michael Baba wanted to see her, and if she didn't go talk to him, that he'd find her tomorrow.

Alicia thanked the girl, sent her on her way, and continued unpacking her belongings. The only sounds in the small, circular dormitory were the whispers of Delilah and Angelina and the occasional turn of a page from the book that Katherine was reading. Around nine o'clock Alicia pulled out a book of her own.

However, in light of her frustration, she found that she could not concentrate, and the tiny black letters did nothing but swim on the page. Tired, be it from the days abnormal events or not, Alicia put the book down, pulled the curtain around her bed and went to sleep hugging her favourite pillow.

hr 

Alicia woke up to the bright light of an early September Saturday morning. As much as she felt like going back to sleep, a glance at the watch on her nighttable told her that it was just after nine o'clock in the morning and she had intended to be at breakfast before nine thirty.

She quickly jumped up and into the shower. After a quick, five minute shower, Alicia, wrapped in a thin red towel burst out of the bathroom and pulled out an old pair of black jeans from her drawer along with a solid green t-shirt. After going to another drawer and pulling out a bra and underwear as well Alicia was back in the bathroom and dressed in two minutes.

When she left the bathroom again, Katherine was awake and making her ways towards the bathroom. Grabbing her makeup from her nighttable, Alicia used the mirror across the room to do a rushed, but neat enough job with her eyeliner and abstract green eyeshadow.

Alicia quickly tied the lime green shoelaces of her trainers and slipped an un-zippered sweatshirt on over her t-shirt. Yelling a quick (and purposely loud) goodbye to Katherine Alicia left the dormitory to the sounds of her other three roommates groaning and waking. Thundering down the staircase that led to the common room, Alicia jumped the last three steps and sped out into the corridor.

By the time Alicia finally made it to the Great Hall it was about twenty minutes to ten. Most of the school's students were either still sleeping or just making their way to breakfast. Luckily enough, Alicia spotted Michael and went to sit next to him.

"Don't I get enough of you during the summer?" asked Michael, though jokingly.

"Of course not. It's impossible to have too much of me," Alicia answered happily.

Mike found it odd that not only was Alicia happy and bubbly at any time before eleven o'clock, but it was a Saturday. Mike couldn't recall a time that Alicia hadn't slept until at least ten o'clock on a Saturday.

He was about to ask her about it, but when he turned to Alicia, she had already gotten up, and was exiting the Great Hall with two pieces of toast in her hand.

Alicia, smiling, left Hogwarts through the ornate oak doors and walked across the grassy grounds towards the lake. Knowing she had time, Alicia slowed her face and enjoyed the woodsy, memory-filled scent of autumn. Full on past emotion, Alicia tossed her toast aside and opted to stick three pieces of chewing gum into her mouth.

When the lake came into sight, Alicia spotted another figure there. She assumed that it was Collin and a smile crept on to her face. Alicia knew that she barely knew the guy, but his sweet, flirtatious nature had captured her and she protesting against it all that hard.

When Alicia got close enough to the lake to see that it was indeed Collin, she nodded her head and flicked her wrist in greeting. He smiled in return and Alicia quickened her pace.

"Hey," she said, as she arrived next to Collin.

"Hey," Collin returned. He bobbed his head slightly. "So, what's up?"

"Nothing much," Alicia replied. "I'm sort of regretting I suggested ten o'clock; I tend to sleep way past that time."

It was obvious to both Alicia and Collin that it was awkward.

"Do you want to maybe go back up to the school?" suggested Collin.

"Yeah." Alicia thought that, maybe, it was just awkward because she and Collin barely knew each other, and the fact that they had isolated themselves from everyone else made the situation a little odd.

Alicia's thought turned out to be correct, because as soon as the couple were back into the school, just roaming the halls, occasionally nodding of greeting a friend, the tension and thick air loosened up and Alicia felt considerably more comfortable.

Alicia and Collin did nothing but wander around the corridors for a good few hours, (it was actually one in the afternoon when they arrived into the Great Hall to eat lunch together) but Alicia thought that it was the best thing they could have done.

Sure, it hadn't been the most exciting date in the world, but Alicia learned loads about Collin; about his family, where he came from, some past embarrassing experiences(which were Alicia's favourite.)

After a quick lunch, the two headed outside, not noticing the stares that they were attracting as their hands found each other's and their fingers intertwines tightly.

It seemed to be a mutual decision to steer clear of the lake and the awkwardness it may or may not have caused. Instead, Collin and Alicia walked the perimeter of the castle and chatted a bit more. Suddenly, Collin stopped walking and turned to Alicia.

"You wouldn't mind if I kissed you now, would you?" Collin looked at the ground as he asked.

Alicia shyly shook her head and tilted her face towards Collin for a tentative, quick kiss. Temporarily contented, the two continued walking and talking.

i One good thing, /I Alicia thought, I is that since we hardly know each other, I guess we could just talk for hours exploring each other; something that people who really know each other can't. /I 

Later on, as the sun became less intense, Collin slowed again. This time he did not stop walking completely, or ask permission, but simply turned his head and lightly touched his lips to Alicia's, testing the waters. Alicia, amazed at the gentle caring kiss that Collin was giving her did not protest at all, on the contrary, she pushed herself, only slightly, closer to him. The only other words that were spoken during the rest of the date were, 'good-bye' and, 'that was fun, we should do it again.'

As Alicia walked up the first of seven staircases to her common room, she was barely attached to the earth anymore. Something about Collin gave Alicia an unearthly attraction to him, and the relaxed, clearly dazed look on her face was foreign. The invisible hooks on the sides of her mouth kept Alicia constantly smiling.

It was five o'clock when she happily stumbled into the common room. Surely, if herself as she had been a month ago had seen her then, she would have time traveled just to knock some sense into her older self. However, Alicia was too high on cloud nine to realise how foolish she was being. All she could think about, at all, as she sunk in the cushiest pillow on the couch was Collin.

Collin. Collin. Collin.


	7. Chapter 7

1Alicia woke up the morning after her date with Collin to soreness all over and a dull headache to accompany it. A quick glance at her watch told her that it was one in the afternoon.

i Well no wonder I'm sore, /I thought Alicia. i I've just slept for fourteen hours. /I 

Alicia was unfortunate enough to have an array of sleeping problems, one of them being that whenever she slept for an extended period of time, her muscles cramped and she remained groggy for the rest of the day.

With a low moan, Alicia rolled over the edge of her bed and landed on the floor in a tangle of blankets and sheets. Knowing from the start that she would do nothing productive the whole day, she dragged herself (still tangled in the bedclothes) out her dormitory and down the stairs to the common room. Although she had already slept for so long, the plush red couch looked so inviting.

But the angry person sitting on it did not. Stan was glaring at Alicia as she carefully made her way down the stairs, yet still tripped over a sheet and sprawled on the ground; Stan had not caught her as he had at the end of the summer when she stumbled out of the fireplace.

Hating that she was getting herself into an argument, but confused over why Stan was angry with her, she walked up to Stan and stood before him. Her bedraggled appearance, complete with tousled hair and smudged makeup from the night before would have usually been the target of Stan's wisecracks, but he did nothing but glare at Alicia.

"Are you just going to make me guess why you seem to hate me?" Had Alicia's arms not been contained by various sheets and blankets, her arms would have been crossed in frustration; Alicia never put her hands on her hips, she thought it was such an awkward position. "Or are you possibly going to tell me?"

After waiting a half a minute or so, Stan rolled his eyes and answered, "That Collin guy, I don't like him."

Alicia opened her mouth to remark smartly, but for once, her common sense kicked in and prevented her from furthering the argument. There was no sense in adding fuel to the fire. Alicia spent few seconds untangling herself from the bedclothes and revealed a large t-shirt over plaid pajama pants. She sat down next to Stan. As much as she usually would have brushed off the fight and possibly made it worse, Alicia thought that there was too much drama going on, and feuding with her best friend was not going to help her.

"Well, what about him don't you like?" asked Alicia, trying to alleviate Stan's dislike for Collin.

Stan turned his head the other way. "Not so much him, but what he does to you."

Alicia sighed in relief; Stan was talking to her, which meant he wanted to work out whatever the problem was too. "You mean make me act like a complete pudding-head?"

Stan smiled, tight lipped, but a smile none-the-less. "Yeah, something like that."

Alicia put her arm around Stan and edged a little closer to him. He smelled sweet, as if someone had spilled pumpkin juice on her during breakfast. As unlikely as that was, Alicia couldn't exactly rule that out.

"Well, I'm not too fond of that myself." Alicia glanced around the common room and saw only a few third-years, a couple of small people that were more likely that not first-years, and Brice Underman, a boy in her year that she knew more by his face than his name.

Stan, warning Alicia just as much as he was notifying her, "That guy just makes you act very unlike yourself, which means there's a possibility of it ending badly."

Stan was illusive in his wording, but Alicia got it – If she wasn't acting like herself, Collin might get the wrong idea about her. Furthermore, if she wasn't acting like herself, she might actually get hurt, something her firecracker personality had always protected her against.

Alicia just nodded and hugged Stan tightly. For once in her life, Alicia had fixed a situation without worsening it first.

She pulled from Stan quickly. "I'm sorry, I have to know. Did anyone happen to spill pumpkin juice on you this morning?"

Stan laughed. "Oh, that. Well, it's wasn't spilled so much as thrown. Let's just say you missed a minor food fight and three detention slips while you were sleeping."

"I'm hungry," Alicia claimed out of no where. She got up and pulled Stan after her.

"In that?" Stan asked, gesturing to her nighttime attire. Not only were they pajamas, they were wrinkly pajamas.

"Yep," Alicia answered. "Wait, no, Collin's there." She saw the look on Stan's face and changed her mind yet again; when her head was clear and not full of Collin-centered thoughts, Alicia knew where her loyalties lay; with her best friends. "Actually, I'm good like this."

On the way to the Great Hall, Alicia caught a look at herself in the mirror. She wasn't a i complete /I mess. Besides the tousled hair, the makeup didn't look too bad; of course, the constantly-present dark circles under her eyes were abnormally dark, but Alicia could deal with that.

As she made her way through the castle, Alicia got odd looks from people. Well, she almost always did, but that was often because she was doing something, or had recently done something worthy of them. This time, Alicia wasn't sure what it was.

Alicia walked through the open doors to the Great Hall just as most students were exiting it. She bumped shoulders with one person particularly hard and when she looked back, it was a Slytherin girl, Kristen, who was generally nice but seemed to harbour a special hatred for Alicia.

She gave Alicia a nasty look when she spotted her looking.

Sitting down at the table, already becoming tired again, Alicia took a helping of almost all the foods laid out on the long table. She was unceremoniously eating her food, having already forgotten about Kristen and the other looks she had received; nothing was out of place.

Catcalls suddenly erupted throughout the hall and Alicia looked up. She saw Collin walking towards her and most eyes were on him, some on her. Being the 'optimist' that she was, Alicia automatically assumed the worst. She could only imagine what the stares were for; were they pitying? Did everyone else know that Collin was going to break-up with her before they were even officially going out?

"So, those rumours," stated Collin vaguely as he reached the Gryffindor table.

"Rumours?" Alicia repeated.

"Yeah . . . The rumours. Do you not know?" Collin looked rather uncomfortable. "About, er. Us."

i Oh, God, /I thought Alicia.

Collin looked awkward as he began the first word of the explanation. Saving him, Katherine cut in and stated bluntly, "Everyone's saying that you two shagged yesterday."

"Well, that's one easy way of summing it up," Collin muttered under his breath.

"But we didn't," declared Alicia.

Katherine shrugged. "You're preaching to the choir. Everyone in this conversation knows that; it's the rest of Hogwarts that doesn't."

Resisting the urge to pound her head into the hard, oak table (but only because there was food in the space in front of her,) Alicia combed her fingers through her wavy reddish hair.

Alicia took a spoonful of mashed potatoes and smiled. Just like that it was over; Alicia no longer cared about the rumour going around about her and Collin. Alicia had long since stopped caring about the lives (or lack thereof) of her peers. For all Alicia cared, they could think that she was just passed around the entire student body.

Well, maybe she'd be a little concerned if that rumour arose.

"So, which loser started it?" asked Alicia conversationally, her tone of voice making it obvious that she didn't care all that much. No one knew who started the rumour.

"Hmm. I really don't want classes to start. I'd rather not have a bunch of N. E. W. T. level work to do all year." Alicia did all her work, but always last minute, often staying up all night to complete particularly large essays. If what she heard about seventh -year was true, her old methods would no longer work. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Wa' soome choke at pa?" Alicia's intentions would have been unclear due to a mouthful of potatoes had she not accompanied the statement with a spoon full of chocolate pie thrust into the air.

Collin immediately took Alicia up on the offer and ate the pie, smiling cheekily as he chewed.

"Hey," Alicia protested. "I never said you could have that!"

Collin shrugged, Stan smirked, and Katherine ate the rest of Alicia's pie while she wasn't looking.


End file.
